Church Of St Martin

TA 06 SE HARPHAM LOWTHORPE

4/43 Church of St Martin 20.9.66

GV II*

Church. Chancel about 1330, C15 tower, raised in C18, nave rebuilt in C19, C19 south porch. Sandstone ashlar, coursed squared chalk rubble, brick in English garden wall bond to belfry, slate roof. 2-stage west tower, 4-bay nave, ruinous 2-bay chancel (originally 3 bays or more). West tower: double-chamfered plinth, buttresses with offsets and gablets. Pointed belfry openings with timber Y-tracery, stepped cornice to crenellated parapet with corner obelisks. West window of 2 lights with mullion, ¼-round moulding to reveals, and segmental heads under dripmould. 2 lifts of putlog holes blocked with bricks above. Nave: chamfered plinth, buttresses with offsets. Lancet to west with cusped tracery, two 2-light windows with cusped Y-tracery to east. Pointed south doorway with continuous roll- moulding. coped gables. Chancel: west bay has chamfered plinth. Buttresses with offsets. 3-light pointed window to west with high-quality Reticulated tracery and iron glazing bars, now reduced to one light. Human head hood-mould stop to right. Pointed priest's door in deep segmental- headed embrasure to right. Fragments of crenellations over. North wall has 2 pointed windows with similar high-quality Reticulated tracery. C16 east window of 4 lights with mullions and transoms. Interior: nave has C14 double-chamfered pointed chancel arch on moulded capitals with rosettes and stylised fig leaves. Fragment of a brass in north wall: knight and part of accompanying inscription, 1443. (The matrix for this brass lies in the chancel floor). C14 recumbent effigy of a couple carved as if partly concealed beneath a tree with shields at the roots and 6 branches to each side, each branch terminating in the head of a child. West wall bears a memorial to John Newton erected by his widow Jane and giving old style and new style dates (1739/40) together with some verses previously written by the deceased and his wife. To the south, a memorial to their children 1735. Below, a pre-Conquest cross-head with interlace ornament. Chancel: re-set trefoil-headed piscina in east wall. Large collection of inscribed and architectural fragments. 'The chancel of the Church of Saint Martin is scheduled as an Ancient Monument.

Listing NGR: TA0790960807